The Scarlet Hood
by kaiwa
Summary: 'Trust is as red and permanent as blood. Once it stains a purely white mind; only fire of deceptions can truly make it disappear, and engenders brown rubbles of experiences.' A stranger in a red hood convinces her that she might just begin to trust again.


**Hi guys! I'm new here in fanfiction :3 so obviously this is my first fanfic XD hooraayy! Actually I had been a reader for a very, very long time. But I had just recently decided to make a fanfic for all the maid sama freaks out there! I just loveee Usui and Misaki *kyaaaa*they're the best…couple…ever! Well this story took me a long time enough. ==" About an hour for a few days after I finished my homeworks. Don't get me wrong I'm really satisfied about this story~**

**Enjoy to your hearts' content!**

**Disclaimer: I own no recognizable characters of Hiro Fujiwara-san, sadly, including Usui :'((**

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><p><strong>Chapter 1: A Very Long Prologue<strong>

The moonlight shone brightly amongst the pitch-black sky; it was a night without the stars. The wind blew stronger than usual, causing the tiny droplets of melted ice on the edge of newly grown leaves to fall deeply into the snow. Towering trees bestowed the shadows that concealed the only shining, meager light from the feeble moon, in comparison with summer nights. There was something unusual about the calm forest this night, that is, fresh and small-sized footsteps could be seen clearly on the thick snow under the glistening moonlight.

Misaki was on her way to her grandmother's house in the forest for a particularly not-so-reasonable reason. She had a terrible nightmare. For a nine-year-old girl, this wouldn't be the best idea to conquer her fears towards this nightmare, she knew. But only her grandmother can soothe her under her current conditions, since the time about a week before, when her only beloved and trusted father left her with her mother and sister in her small hometown of Eiworu. Not only did he leave without even saying goodbye, but he also left them with a huge amount of debt from a bartender from a nearby town. She had cried at least once - of course, but swore never to do so again and to be strong for her family even though she might not even be old enough to even think of a way out of this crisis.

Misaki was too lost in her thoughts of the nightmare that she did not care to even look at where she was going. Her small, dainty foot got stuck to the root of a humongous tree, which caused her other one to trip on the edges of her unusual, lacey-looking white nightgown. Her hands brushed against the rough rocks on the ground and friction caused piercing pain to be felt along her palm, elbow, and spine. To add to the luck, she did not fall on soft snow but instead, was plunging towards a deep, dark, dangerous cliff. Her tiny hands reached out to grab anything to prevent her from falling, but she only managed to grab a hand full of cold, thin air. She had no voice left to scream due to the terror of that danger she was caught in as she fell down, plummeting towards the source of gravity. Misaki closed her eyes and hugged her body tightly, preparing for the excruciating pain from the impact that she expected to receive and the marks of it that has yet to come. Her last word revealing her worst fear echoed through the mountains as she fell. "Blood."

Her nightmare was going to become true.

The ends of her jet-black hair followed the rhythm of the resistance from the air against her elfin body; the feeling was just indubitably petrifying for the first few seconds of her free-fall. Abruptly, a new warm feeling swarmed her petite body as she realizes her hair was caught in a tangled touch from something particularly comforting. It soothed her wholly, just before her brief collision against the branches of the trees. She squinted her eyes to see something peculiarly scarlet, and everything went black.

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><p>As reality found its way back into Misaki's mind, her eyes fluttered open just to make her realize that she was in fact not dreaming, neither was she in her nightmare. She felt pain and discomfort all around her, even traces of aches along her body. Nonetheless, there was something bothering her mind. Why didn't she die? And why was there a warm feeling in some parts of her even though it was freezing cold?<p>

Misaki suddenly became conscious of the excruciating pain on her palm, obtained from the rough stones from above the cliff. Her fingers were curling into something red, something soft. Using what's left of her momentary energy, she pushed herself against something beneath the red cloth, only to lose the balance from her hurting hand and fall against it with a thud.

"That hurts," she heard a voice speaking with calmness, breaking the silence in the deep woods.

She tilted her head upwards, only to see herself facing an unfamiliarly charming face of a boy about her age. With only a faint light from the sky and even though her eyes were still blurry, she was able to see his perfectly outlined features. His jaws were sharp; a faint blush was clearly present on his lightly colored cheeks. His skin was pale, his blonde, thick, soft looking hair, and jade orbs, which bored into her own amber ones, made him look… mesmerizing. His eyes were full of concern and warmth, she realized for a second, but something else caught her attention. She felt her fingers were brushing against… skin? And she felt hands on her… hips?

Misaki scrambled against his opened chest and sat on her knees, feeling a warm feeling on her cheeks as she pointed a finger at his face. "Wh-why are you naked? A-and w-why were you trying to hug me? P-pervert!"

Misaki saw a surprised look on his face just when she was able to see clearly again.

"Stop stuttering, it ruins your whole image." The boy replied lazily as he sat up against the snow while brushing his hand on his blond locks of hair.

She saw his eyes scanning through the lower part of her body up to her now heaving chest. Misaki felt even more heat rushing through her cheeks as she took her hurting hand to cover the front of her nightgown.

"Y-you! Disgusting perve-" the boy's eyes went big as he heard her first few words of her sentence.

Before she could finish, the boy took her hand and clasped it again his own.

"You're hurt aren't you? I saw the wound on your hand earlier. And stop squirming already, unless you really want me to hug you." A playful smirk appeared on his lips as he used his hand and brushed it softly against the gash on her small palm.

Misaki was surprised by his kind attitude, since at first she thought he was just a pervert due to the fact that he was half dressed in such a cold weather. As the boy took a handkerchief from the pocket of his pants and softly wiped blood away from her lesion, she perceived some other facets that were probably the most fascinating personas of the young stranger.

The boy was wearing a long and thick red hood, which covered the space of snow around him. He was to put it simply, topless and was just using short, black trousers and sandals. Misaki wondered for a while about the boy's dressing, but pondered upon her own nightgown and decided that maybe, he was feeling cautious about his reasons as she was about her own.

His perfectly carved face was filled with bloodstained scratches and a bruise that seemed newly formed covered half of his forehead. Drips of blood were falling from the top of his head; a straight path of it was smeared down across a part of his face. Her eyes traced to the solicitous hands that were soothing her own. His left arm had a big wound that looked new, and the top of his hand shows signs that he was pretty much quivering in pain.

Then it popped into her senses. The warm feeling as she fell, the soft cushion she was resting upon when she awoke…

"D-did you jump down to try to protect me from my fall?" Misaki questioned as she realized his scars looked like they were scraped from branches of the pine trees in the forest.

"It's not appropriate for girls to jump down hills,"

"It wasn't on purpose you i-idiot!" Misaki exclaimed.

Misaki stared deep into the eyes of the nonplussed boy and looked down into the snow, her bangs preventing her already watery eyes from disclosing anymore outspoken emotions.

"I-I was just-"

"Thinking about complications? Maybe nightmares?" the boy said in a questioning manner with ease, concluding her sentence without even breaking a sweat to figure her out.

"H-how did you-? You p-perverted outer space alien! You-!" Misaki went silent as her eyes flickered up, just to find her face being one level with his perfectly toned chest.

"It's just from my observations, really. I mean it's not everyday that you can see a girl running around in the woods in the middle of the night,"

Misaki felt warmth all of a sudden and realized his body showed no more signs of anything crimson. The boy had taken off his red hood, and draped it on her trembling shoulders.

"Keep it-,"

" You're cold, aren't you?" the boy inquired as his hands tied the red ribbon around her neck, the anomalously warm tips of his fingers unintentionally brushed softly against her cold throat.

It was then that she realized she was shivering, and he wasn't even affected a little by the cold. She concluded that his hands were wincing in pain, not shuddering due to the frosty, freezing weather.

She abruptly took his wounded hand, and stared at it intensely.

"You're hurt pretty bad, aren't you?" she stroked his deep cut with very light pressure using her cold hands; he winced a little by the touch.

"Someone cares about meee~" the boy chanted playfully.

"What the-"

Misaki stopped in the middle of her sentence as he took her wounded hand in his own injured one and brought his face towards her forehead. She felt his warm, soft lips against her forehead and her cheeks flushed warm red instantaneously. The boy looked down at her face and showed the most sincere smile anyone had ever given to her. His eyes were full with so much fondness that she had never received all her life. He reached out his other hand and placed it on her bangs, tucking it behind her delicate ears.

"Come on I'll take you home."

Misaki's eyebrows tightened into a painful look, the tips of her lips turned into a frown and her hands clutches to her new clothing as she heard the short phrase. Should she trust another man, again?

She stared deeply into his eyes and unfeigned smile, and grasped that it was certainly not pain that caused her to show such an expression, but he had tugged on her heartstrings; all the pain throughout the painful experience from her father seemed to have lessen.

"Trust me. I would never leave you. You'll be all right," he stood up on his feet, carrying her along with him by holding a grip with his other hand on her hips. The red hood followed their movement, swaying as the wind blew the tiny pieces of snowflakes, differentiating the scarlet color of the garment from the dark night.

"What's you're name?"

"Ayuzawa Misaki. What's yours?"

"I'm Usui Takumi. But you can call me Usui."

"Well, don't you feel cold Usui? You're like an alien, undressed and all that in such a frigid weather," Misaki said with amazement and looked at his face, "I feel bad by taking a quarter of your whole clothing. The biggest fragment of it, in fact. Truthfully, I really hate owing others."

"Don't worry, you don't owe me anything," Usui chuckled, " I have pretty thick hair," his face then became very composed.

He faced back to Misaki and smirked, "Unlike you, dressing like a lost maid in the middle of the night."

"YOU PERVERTED OUTER SPACE ALIEN!" Misaki's voice echoed through the valley.

"Tch-tch-tch Ayuzawa~ How could a little sweet maid say such words?" Usui guffawed aloud.

The two of them walked together hand in hand towards her home, their voices of chatter lingering through the silent coppice. The faint light from the regal moon was covered by the thick clouds in the air as footsteps of a boy were printed on the silky snow, and a girl's, covered by a trail from a scarlet hood follows next to its trail; no longer alone.

Things may have turned out fine for the two strangers, but this was just the beginning of their very unexpected and unforeseen future, entangled by fate; by the Scarlet Hood.

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><p><strong>Preview of future chapters:<strong>

The fire glowed with rage, burning anything and everything that stood at its path. The pieces of wood from the ceiling of the small building cascaded down, breaking into deep, dark grey ash of dust. There were no concerned spectators of the fire but one, one that literally has a knife placed against her throat. The ribbon of her red hood was slit free, lying recumbent on the filthy ground. She wasn't concerned about the sharp-edged knife that was in contact with her skin, or even her dirty piece of garment on the floor, but something even bigger than just that.

She stared into the red, glowing space of light, praying for just one vital reason she found a few years back; that she was going to realize was keeping her alive, "Usui-"

How did things turn out to be so different than what she expected them to be?

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><p><strong><span>A very long AN: Sooooo…. How was it? Do you like the red hood? :D please go easy on me people~ I'm kind of new at writing lonnnggg narrative stories. Do you think… maybe… they're out of their characters? X( hhmmm. I think you may have realized that this story is somewhat inspired by none other than…. Red Riding Hood! Yesshh people it's that **** amazing story over there. I liked the book better than the movie! The movie was kind of… low in budget? Maybe? Who knows ==" I never said it IS going to be similar to Red Riding Hood… or is it? Well we'll see. Obviously I won't copy the story. Maybe the theme from the original fairytale where there is a red hood and the wolf and a grandmother yada yada yada. Will there even be a wolf? Maybe even a werewolf? (I'm team Edward btw for twilight fans out there /) ok no more spoilers.**

**Oh yeah my best friend, Rika, is having her birthday tomorrow~ I can't say it to her since I'm sort of away. So I'll say it here, since she's an extreme kwms freak too! Happy Early Birthday Rik! Gbu always! XD Can't believe I don't have the time to tease you that I'm a year older anymore. =3= well we'll see in 15 days XD I'll be an even older person O_O**

**I think… the next chapter (if there is going to be one) will take a very, very long time to be updated, if there's anyone that actually wants me to update ;_; I have very important exams coming up in 2 weeks! NOOOOO! Gotta be sooo prepared for them. ^^""**

**_REVIEWs_ will be highly appreciated and maybe I could even write the not-yet-decided-to-be-written next chapter even faster! XD**


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